Curtain Theatre (Glasgow)

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Curtain Theatre was an influential amateur theatrical company active in Glasgow between 1933 and 1939. It was seminal in reviving theatrical culture in Scotland.

Glasgow City and council area in Scotland

Glasgow is the most populous city in Scotland, and the third most populous city in the United Kingdom, as of the 2017 estimated city population of 621,020. Historically part of Lanarkshire, the city now forms the Glasgow City council area, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland; the local authority is Glasgow City Council. Glasgow is situated on the River Clyde in the country's West Central Lowlands. It is the fifth most visited city in the UK.

Scotland Country in Europe, part of the United Kingdom

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Sharing a border with England to the southeast, Scotland is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, the North Sea to the northeast, the Irish Sea to the south, and the North Channel to the southwest. In addition to the mainland, situated on the northern third of the island of Great Britain, Scotland has over 790 islands, including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.

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Founding

Curtain Theatre was founded by Grace Ballantine, Molly Urquhart and Paul Vincent Carroll with the aim to support new Scottish writing for the stage and develop Scottish styles of performance at a time when Scotland's own native theatre traditions had been all but lost. It emerged from the dissolution of RF Pollock's short-lived Tron Theatre Club in 1932.

Molly Urquhart British actress

Molly Urquhart (1906–1977) was a Scottish actress.

Paul Vincent Carroll was an Irish dramatist and writer of movie scenarios and television scripts.

Tron Theatre theatre in Glasgow, Scotland

The Tron Theatre is located at the corner of Trongate and Chisholm Street, in the Merchant City area of Glasgow, Scotland.

Productions

In the seven years between 1933 and 1939, the Curtain produced a full annual programme of plays and launched the careers of a number of playwrights, actors and impresarios who would be influential to the rising Scottish drama of the twentieth century, most notably Paul Vincent Carroll, Robert McLellan and Duncan Macrae. One of its most famous productions was the premiere of McLellan's play, Jamie the Saxt . Its early productions were by subscription in a dedicated small studio theatre which the company established at a private address close to the city's University district. [1] After 1935, productions were mounted in Glasgow's Lyric Theatre. [2]

An impresario is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays, or operas, performing a role similar to that of an artist manager or a film or television producer.

Robert McLellan OBE (1907–1985) was a Scottish dramatist, poet and writer of the Linmill Stories, working principally in the Scots language. His plays were generally popular comedies with exceptionally well-realised historical settings, including most notably Toom Byres, Jamie the Saxt, Torwatletie, The Flouers o Edinburgh and The Hypocrite. He also wrote works of dramatic verse such as The Carlin Moth. His Linmill cycle of short stories, collected posthumously in 1990, are counted with Lorimer’s Bible as being among some of the most important Twentieth Century prose in Scots.

Duncan Macrae (actor) Scottish actor and comedian

John Duncan MacRae was one of the leading Scottish actors of his generation. He worked mainly as a stage actor, with only a limited number of screen appearances. He was also a comedian, with a 'glaikit' mannerism.

Influence

Curtain Theatre in its original form folded soon after the outbreak of World War II, although one of its members opened the Park Theatre next door to what had been the Curtain Theatre. [3] Although it was short-lived, the Curtain Theatre activities as a dynamic amateur company played a vitally important part in reviving theatrical culture in Scotland, giving new Scottish actors a home-grown base for developing Scottish self-expression in the theatre arts, and breaking open new paths in the movement which eventually led to the re-establishment of native professional theatre in the country in the 1940s.

World War II 1939–1945 global war

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

Sources

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References

  1. ↑ "The Curtain Theatre". www.arthurlloyd.co.uk. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  2. ↑ "The Royalty Theatre". www.arthurlloyd.co.uk. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  3. ↑ "The Park Theatre". www.arthurlloyd.co.uk. Retrieved 20 October 2017.

Coordinates: 55°52′04″N4°16′31″W / 55.8677°N 4.2754°W / 55.8677; -4.2754

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

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